With just a week to go before our final regular season home match, we’re launching BYCAP.

What’s BYCAP?

At the end of the year, folks get this wild idea that, out of admiration and/or gratitude, they should buy the capos a pint. This is a really great idea but, honestly, there’s no way they can drink that much and still remain functional through the game.

Instead, they’d like to funnel the money that would be used to buy them pints back into the community through a donation to the Rock & Roll Camp for Girls. Summer camp tuition this year was $400 per student. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could cover tuition for at least one student for each of our capos and drummers?

We’ll be passing buckets pre-match on Sunday (not necessarily on Sunday the capo, though she’ll *have* a bucket you can drop cash into) or you can donate by clicking here.

Hey, all. It’s that time again. As we approach our final regular season home match of the year, we’re thinking back over the contributions made by each of our players. The Riveters Player of the Year will be honored August 30 at Providence Park.

The survey is set to only accept one response from each computer so please discuss with family/roommates/opinionated pets before you make your choice. The poll will close Sunday, August 23rd at 6 p.m. (assuming I clicked all the right buttons and checked all the right boxes).

HEY. READ THIS.

We’re roughly 26 hours from bus departure from the Moda Center. The bus will leave at 10:45 a.m.. This does not mean you should arrive at Moda at 10:45 a.m.. This means you should arrive there with enough time to gather your stuff, collect your ticket, share your donuts with friends and be safely tucked in ON THE BUS by 10:45 a.m..

Your bus captain will brief you on the dos and don’ts of Seattle Away, but here are just a couple things to remember before getting on the bus:

You may bring your own food and beverages, but NO GLASS OF ANY KIND, please.

You can leave your belongings on the bus during the match. Buses will be secured or the driver will stay on board.

The toilets get full pretty quickly so pace yourselves. And no #2s.

Bring a few dollars to tip your bus driver. They deserve it.

Please drink responsibly and make sure the others on your bus do, as well. When you travel on the road with us, you represent Portland, Portland Thorns FC, Rose City Riveters, and 107ist. If you are deemed too drunk to enter the stadium, you could find yourself staying on the bus and missing the match.

If you’re meeting us in Seattle, the time and meeting place have changed. Please meet the group at 2 p.m. at the Harrison St. entrance. This is especially important if you have flags or banners. You may enter the stadium separately from the group, but you cannot bring in flags/banners separately and entering as a group is really the only way we can ensure we’ll be able to sit together.

Any fan deemed to be conducting him/herself inappropriately may be subject to ejection from the match. Stadium staff reserve the right to escort any fan from the stadium should their conduct be deemed inappropriate and/or unsafe.

Have fun, have a safe trip, don’t be *that guy*. See you at Memorial. 

Reign, Reign, go away! On July 26, we invade Memorial Stadium to cheer our Thorns on to victory against Seattle Reign FC. Let’s do this.

Bus from Portland + Match Ticket

Your hard-working Riveters volunteers have reserved two buses for the trip. We’ll leave from the Rose Quarter, 200 N Winning Way (near the Moda Center) at 10:45AM. This is easily accessible by public transportation. We will return to the same location. There is street parking in the area but be aware that much of it is metered in the immediate vicinity. There are also pay lots available in the area. http://findit.oregoncc.org/Parking%20Maps/Area%20Parking%20Map/AreaParking.pdf

Please enter your name and email and bring your Paypal receipt as your ticket to get on the bus.

NOTE: You will be given your match ticket as you board the bus. Keep it safe.

Your bus captain will brief you on the dos and don’ts of Seattle Away, but here are just a couple things to remember before getting on the bus:

You may bring your own food and beverages, but NO GLASS OF ANY KIND, please.

You can leave your belongings on the bus during the match. Buses will be secured or the driver will stay on board.

The toilets get full pretty quickly so pace yourselves. And no #2s.

Bring a few dollars to tip your bus driver. They deserve it.

Please drink responsibly and make sure the others on your bus do, as well. When you travel on the road with us, you represent Portland, Portland Thorns FC, Rose City Riveters, and 107ist. If you are deemed too drunk to enter the stadium, you could find yourself staying on the bus and missing the match.

AS ALWAYS, TICKETS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE

The policies for Seattle Away ticketing are as follows:

According to the laws of the land, anyone under 21 is not allowed to consume alcohol, and it’s no different on this trip.

You will be asked to agree to the 107ist away travel code of conduct and a general release of liability. If you violate the terms of the fan code of conduct, 107ist leadership and bus captains reserve the right to remove you from the trip and have you banned from future organized away travel.

These requirements may change as we receive updated information from Seattle or Portland’s Front Office. While we will endeavor to give you as much notice as possible of any changes, it is sometimes out of our control.

Have fun and support the girls in red.

This year we’re also including the option of donating $10 to the Riveters tifo fund as you buy your ticket, because it turns out, awesome displays such as this require a LOT of support. And of course, the extra donation is entirely optional!

Match Ticket Only

If you live in Seattle, or plan to travel to the match on your own, please purchase your ticket directly from Seattle Reign FC by visiting Seattle’s Ticketing site. For seats in the Riveters section, you MUST select tickets in the Upper Grandstand.

You will need to arrive at the Memorial Stadium street entrance no later than 2:15PM, at which point stadium staff will conduct a bag search, and escort the group as a whole to our section. Anyone arriving after that time will need to enter through the main gates. Late arrivers will be welcome to sit with us, but they will not be permitted to bring flags, two-sticks, etc. through the main entrance.

Stadium policies on the following:

Flags: Yes, but must be taken in with the group, and will be checked by stadium staff. Individuals will not be able to bring them in separately.

Banners: Yes, but must be taken in with the group, and will be checked by stadium staff. Individuals will not be able to bring them in separately.

Drums: No

Smoke: No

Langauge: Family-friendly.

Any fan deemed to be conducting him/herself inappropriately may be subject to ejection from the match. Stadium staff reserve the right to escort any fan from the stadium should their conduct be deemed inappropriate and/or unsafe.

Okay, so I’ll just get this out of the way: Allie Long made me cry.

It’s happened before. Vero made me cry more than once last year. Her passion for the game, her disappointment at losses, her love for the fans: her outward expression of these things brought tears from me regularly. Alex Morgan made me cry once when she herself was nearly in tears over the frustration she felt in herself over a less-than-stellar performance coming off an injury. There are pictures of Mana Shim in tears after a hard loss last year that invoke the No One Ever Cries Alone clause in my emotional contract with society at large.

But I didn’t expect it from Allie.

“I’ve said it a million times: my goal is to go to the World Cup or the Olympics so I’m just striving to keep improving and keep getting better,” she told the assembled media post-match.”The NWSL means everything. It’s all that I have to grow and get better each day, to achieve what I want for myself and the team.”

The NWSL means everything.

Listening to her answer questions about being one of the players expected to be in Portland for the full season rather than being called in to World Cup play, it was hard not to wonder how much that hurts. I think there’s still a part of her that believes there’s still a chance she’ll find herself in Canada this summer. And, in my humble and very biased opinion, I think she deserves to be there.

But the reality is this: it might take a lot of stars aligning to get her there.

And that, dear friends, was the point of the tifo.

I saw a fair few people post on Twitter and Facebook about how tonight’s tifo was a tribute to the players who will be playing in the World Cup this year. Well, sure, but it was more than that.

It was a tribute to those players who come from all over the world to play here, to play for us. It was a tribute to those players who pull on a Thorns shirt and play for the love of the club and have no aspiration to play for a national team. It was a tribute to those players who’ve had their shot at international play but won’t make the final roster heading into the World Cup.

Because here, in Portland, in Soccer City, USA, every match means the world.

There are dozens of little stories that could be told about the making of this tribute to our players: a last minute change of production venue when the first layers of paint weren’t yet dry that caused new swear words to be created; the hours and hours of work by dozens of volunteers who abandoned their families, their work, their friends and their normal lives; the absolute, collective refusal to let it be anything short of perfect. And those are the stories you’ll be a part of when you answer the next call for volunteers.

It’s here. It’s finally here. It’s game day.

As per the Thorns game alert email, gates tonight are at 6 p.m. with kick at 7:07. Fanladen (1633 SW Alder) will open at 4:30 p.m. for ticket exchange, merch sales, 107ist membership sign-ups and renewals, and general merriment.

If you have spare tickets you’re not using, you can donate them to the Riveters by transferring them to ticketdonation@rosecityriveters.org. If you’re looking for a ticket, we’ll sell you one of those donated ones at face value and that money will go toward tifo and community projects. Last year, some of the proceeds of ticket sales went to the Jefferson Field project.

We’ve got a new shirt going on sale today. It’s a super-limited run. I sincerely mean it when I say “super-limited.” If you want one, you’ll need to come to Fanladen and you’ll need to do it early.

In stadium, we’ll again try to concentrate on getting all our most vocal Thorns supporters into sections 106, 107, and 108. Concentrated effort = greater volume = greater impact on the atmosphere. Learn the chants. Sing the chants. Support our Thorns. And please, especially today, be ready to go before the anthem. We need you all there. The Thorns need you all there.

***

Other stuff:

April 18: Following the match, the Portland chapter of American Outlaws is hosting an event previewing the Womens World Cup and featuring Thorns Alex Morgan, Tobin Heath, Rachel Van Holleke and Allie Long. Tickets are available through their Facebook page or at the AOPDX online store. You don’t need to be a member to purchase tickets and proceeds benefit FC West. Let’s send them to nationals!. Go, go, go!

April 30: The 107ist is hosting the US premiere of “Jack to a King” at Cinema 21 with proceeds going to the Cinema 21 refurbishment and to the Jefferson Field resurfacing project. Tickets are available here.

And don’t forget the Oregon Humane Society’s #BiscuitChallenge. We’ve already seen a few Riveters post their videos. Will you be next?

With just weeks left before NWSL’s third season begins, players are arriving and plans are being set in motion. Today, we gather at Merlo Field to see our Thorns take on the University of Portland Pilots.

There’s history here. It was home to Portland’s patron saint of soccer, Clive Charles. It’s been the starting point for so many epic soccer careers. It was here that Tiffeny Milbrett scored her 100th international goal.

This field has played host to thousands of players from around the world and will host thousands more in years to come.

Those who know me know I’m a sappy, sentimental sort, but I’m going to say this anyway: if you’re on the fence about going today, get off the fence and go. And, when you get there, pause for a moment. Think about why you’re there. Is it purely for the sport? Is it for the fellowship of other soccer fans and supporters? Is it in support of the dreams of so many kids coming up through the system, that they may someday play on this field, wear these badges, live their dreams? There’s no wrong answer.

***

If you go, go early. Take public transit if you can as parking is limited.

We posted yesterday on the FB and Twitter that we’d be in sections H and I. The Pilots student sections are traditionally J, K and L. But, because this all feels so last-minute, it’s likely that we’ll have folks all over the stadium. We don’t have capos and drums lined up for this one so if you want a chant to get going, you’re going to have to do it yourselves. This is preseason, after all, and we’re just getting our voices back after the long offseason.

See you all on the bluff in a few hours.

The long, dark offseason is nearly over. The schedule is out. Rumors of player departures and acquisitions are popping up in the strangest places. It’s time.

Let’s do this.

One more call for volunteers:

We’re looking for folks to join the travel, tifo, merch and membership committees. Grab an oar, folks, the boat is about to push back from the dock. Click here for links to the Google doc sign-up pages and more info about what it is we’re looking for. Don’t hesitate, the sign-up pages will close February 7. (But you can still email us at info@rosecityriveters.org if you want to volunteer later.)

And a preseason gathering:

Does it feel like forever since you’ve seen your fellow Thorns friends? Or, in social media cases, made or gained new followers and friends, but have never met them in person? It is time for our first Riveters meet-and-tweet. On February 21st, after you spend the morning planting trees, come out to Bazi from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.. We will be reminiscing about seasons past and watching the 2013 NWSL championship game, as well as discussing the upcoming season. There will be merch for sale, food and beer to consume, and new and old friends to hang out with.

(Heads up, a sing-along version of Purple Rain will follow our gathering, but is a separate event. If you want to stay for His Royal Purpleness, you’ll need to make a separate reservation through the Bazi website (bazipdx.com).)

(That was a lot of parentheses. Sorry.)

And some other stuff:

We’re working on info for away travel, not just for Seattle, but for each of the other eight NWSL cities. We’ll shout when that info is ready to release, so hold off on buying game tickets just now.

As far as Portland-based away day viewings, we’ll be looking for places you guys would like to gather to watch together. Bazi Bierbrasserie has been fantastic and will show most, if not all, away matches, but we’re looking to expand our reach. Do you know of a place in your neighborhood that might be willing to screen matches for us? Without knowing the television schedule, venues will need to be capable of streaming (ideally with sound), must be accessible and, ideally, should be all-ages. Extra points awarded for venues on MAX or bus lines for our mass-transity friends.

We’ll be doing some work on the website over the next few weeks to make it more functional. If you’ve got ideas or suggestions about what works and doesn’t work, please pass them along. Again, info@rosecityriveters.org.

I think that’s it for now. Go on about your business.

As the new season dawns, we want YOU to help out. A small number of people made magic last year; we are hoping for a larger number of people to help make even more magic this year.

Here’s your chance to get your ideas heard and make a real difference.

We need help on the travel team.

We need help on the merch team.

We need help on the tifo team and flag crew.

We need help on the membership team. (Yes, the page says Timbers Army, but we need help from Riveters folks too.)

Step right up, don’t be shy! Let’s maintain our lead as the finest supporters in the league!

The wheels are starting to turn for the 2015 NWSL season and we’re gearing up with new, well, gear.

It’s red! It’s black! It’s got Polka dots! AND IT’S REVERSIBLE! These festive beanies are up for presale (we expect them to be deliverable in late-January – just in time for Valentine’s Day!). Why not order now and avoid the rush?

As an added incentive, you can get free shipping for these babies (and on all orders over $30) by entering the code GIRLSINRED. Make sure you click the “shipping rate” button after entering the code to confirm the free shipping.

So, head on over to https://pdxrivetgear.com and order a bajillion of them. Preseason is always so cold.